The coldest temperature ever recorded in every state

On this snowy January day, it was Lucille Hereford, the postmistress and town volunteer weather observer, who recorded the -27-degree temperature, calling it a "terribly cold" morning in a 1988 interview with an Alabama State climatologist.

Per a 2021 news report by WHNT, the official story comes with a caveat: The temperature was initially erroneously recorded as warmer than the -24 degrees Fahrenheit reported at Russellville the same day. It wasn't until years later that a Birmingham reporter uncovered the truth, and the National Climatic Data Center finally issued a correction in its records.

The Anchorage Daily News reported in 2013 that there have been some unofficial measurements of even lower temperatures. On the National Weather Service Alaska website, Phil Schaefer claimed it was -84 degrees Fahrenheit in Coldfoot in 1989, and Joe Cochran said the temperature in Hughes dropped to -85 degrees Fahrenheit in the '90s, the Daily News reported.

Hawley Lake isn't any more of a town now than it was in 1971, but it was one of the remote weather stations Stan Bryte oversaw from Phoenix for the National Weather Service, AZCentral reported in 2015. At the time, Hawley Lake had already set a state record for 91 inches of snow in 1968.

But on the morning of January 7, 1971, Bryte's chief meteorologist told him, "You need to get up to Hawley Lake. I have a suspicion this is going to be a real record."

Brook Farm Pond is near the town of Gravette, which has just over 3,500 residents, according to census data.

It is located in Benton County, which has the motto "The Heart of Hometown America," according to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas. At one time, it also bore the name of "Gate Community" for serving as a gateway to northwest Arkansas from Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma. 

The Los Angeles Times reported in 1937 that the low temperatures had brought "influenza, frozen toes, broken water pipes and automobile radiators, icy streets and traffic disruption."

CBS News reported in January 2023 that Maybell, located 25 miles west of Craig, is home to just 76 people.

Georgia McIntyre has been a town resident for 64 years. She told 9News in 2015, "You don't think about how cold it is. You just put all the clothes you've got on, and we even put newspapers in our shoes because we didn't have all these fancy things you have now."

In 1943, a National Weather Service observer noted February was a "relatively mild month," only for Connecticut to record its coldest temperature in the state's history, CT Insider reported in 2023. A freezing day in January just 18 years later would report that same low temperature.

Thirty-seven years later, a Millsboro weather station recorded a temperature of 110 degrees Fahrenheit on a scorching July day, according to the National Weather Service.

In Tallahassee, Florida, 124 years ago, an inch of snow coated the city (its third biggest snowfall ever), and a record low of -2 degrees Fahrenheit was recorded, WTXL Tallahassee reported in 2020.

Headlines at the time read "All Previous Records Broken," and editors were calling the storm, "The Snow King," "The Ice King," and "the Great Blizzard of 1899," Tallahassee Democrat reported in 2018.

Not even 12 years later, on July 24, 1952, Georgia would see its highest temperature recorded at 112 degrees Fahrenheit in Louisville, and again on August 20, 1983, in Greenville, Georgia, according to NOAA's State Climate Extremes Committee.

Forecasters think this record may have changed because, on February 11, 2019, several sensors at the Mauna Kea Observatory reported temperatures between 8 and 11 degrees Fahrenheit, Khon2 reported in 2022, but that has yet to be officially validated.

Island Park Dam, which is located in the Targhee National Forest, is in the northeast corner of the state. It holds the title for the eighth coldest temperature ever recorded in the US.

Frigid temperatures across Illinois in late January 2019 led to a startling discovery: On the morning of January 31, the weather observer at Mount Carroll in Carroll County recorded a temperature drop to -38 degrees Fahrenheit.

Only after an extensive review did the State Climate Extremes Committee collectively validate the reading as the new state record low temperature, the State Journal-Register reported in 2019.

ABC57 reported in 2020 that all temperatures across Indiana dropped below zero on the morning of January 19, 1994.

In a newscast from 1994 for WRTV Indianapolis, a mail carrier told former Channel 6 meteorologist David James, "Well, I'll tell you, it's better today than it was yesterday, 'cuz there's not that wind. So, I don't mind this at all."

Iowa was one of many states in the Midwest that experienced the "1996 Cold Wave," as KCRG-TV9 described it in 2016.

The winter of 1905 was reportedly so bitterly cold that "it was impossible for one to face the storm," according to "Reno County Kansas, Its People, Industries, and Institutions," by B.F. Bowen & Co. Inc. of Indianapolis, published in 1917 and reported in 2014 by The Kansas City Star.

According to meteorologist John Belski, January 19, 1994, "was certainly a day for the history books." 

"Those who were not around in 1994, it was the only time I can remember when grocery stores in parts of Louisville ran out of food and gas stations ran out of gas that week since no deliveries were able to be made for several days. It was so strange to see people walking in the middle of Bardstown Road and also Broadway," he recalled for WLKY News in 2020.

Over two weeks in February 1899, freezing weather swept over the US, where record low minimum temperatures were recorded in 12 states for what was described as "the greatest arctic outbreak in history," according to weather historian David Ludlum in "The Great Arctic Outbreak and East Coast Blizzard of February 1899."

After a month of scrutinizing weather data, scientists declared in February 2009 that Maine had reached a record low: 50 below freezing.

After much evaluation by the State Climate Extreme Committee, "It turned out [the -50 reading] was spot on," Bob Lent, Maine director of the US Geological Survey, said, as reported by NBC News in 2009.

Oakland, Maryland, is home to 2,187 people. According to Britannica, it was established in 1849 and became a well-known tourist spot when the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad built a rail line that traveled through the town.

Previously, the same temperature was recorded in Coldbrook on February 15, 1943, and in Taunton on January 5, 1904.

There are only 11 states with colder recorded temperatures than Michigan: Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, Minnesota, Montana, New York, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

The average low in this sparsely populated former mining town is usually around 4 degrees Fahrenheit in February, according to WorldClimate.com.

By contrast, Mississippi's highest recorded temperature was recorded 36 years prior on July 29, 1930, when the mercury in Holly Springs hit 115 degrees Fahrenheit.

Interestingly enough, the coldest and hottest temperatures recorded in Missouri have both been in Warsaw, according to the University of Missouri Climate Center. The hottest temperature was a whopping 118 degrees Fahrenheit on July 14, 1954.

"It's a day that will probably live in American history forever," Corby Dickerson, a National Weather Service meteorologist, said of the record, NBC Montana reported in February 2023. "It was the coldest day ever observed in the lower 48 states."

The biggest snowstorm on the southeast US coast was known as the "Christmas Snowstorm of 1989," according to The National Weather Service. It broke snowfall records in several states, and unheard-of temperatures followed.

Fifty-seven years after the state's cold temperature, a weather station in Laughlin recorded a temperature of 125 degrees Fahrenheit in June, per data from NOAA's State Climate Extremes Committee.

That may have been the case then, but more recently, it logged the US' coldest wind chill on record: -108. The Weather Service office serving Mount Washington tweeted in February 2023 that its recording software refused to log the reported low number.

"That was a very cold morning in northeastern New Jersey," David Robinson, a New Jersey State Climatologist, told NJ.com in 2019.

"A deep fresh snow cover, the valley location, adjacent to a pond that was used to make ice, and a generally treeless landscape near the station all helped contribute to the excessive cold."

The hottest temperature in New Mexico was recorded on June 27, 1994, at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Loving, where it reached a blazing 122 degrees Fahrenheit.

Jane Tormey, the official weather watcher for Old Forge for CNY Central, recalled in 2013, "People were saying their milk froze on the way home from the store to home. A lot of cars obviously couldn't get started. My car window driver's side was shattered."

One of the past century's most extreme arctic outbreaks occurred between January 18 to January 22, 1985. According to The National Weather Service, newspapers at the time reported at least 165 deaths in connection with the weather.

Coincidentally, both the hottest and coldest temperatures recorded in North Dakota's history happened in the same year, with Steele hitting 121 degrees Fahrenheit on July 6, 1936, KYFR-TV reported in 2023.

Ohio was another state affected by the unprecedented cold of February 1899. According to History.com, the US Weather Bureau reported 105 fatalities between January 29 and February 13 from the arctic temperatures and avalanches brought on by "the Great Arctic Outbreak."

2011 was reportedly Oklahoma's third snowiest year, and the state's record for most snowfall in 24 hours was reached in Spavinaw, with 27 inches, FOX23 News reported in 2020.

Ukiah and Seneca are occasionally known as "Oregon's Icebox" due to their icy winter conditions. That said, Meacham residents have claimed the temperature once plummeted to -62 degrees Fahrenheit, but it has never been proven officially, The Oregonian reported in 2010.

By contrast, in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, two consecutive days of 111 degrees Fahrenheit were recorded on July 9, 1936 and July 10, 1936, in the hottest temperature ever recorded in the state. Phoenixville is five hours from Smethport, where the coldest temperature was recorded 32 years prior.

According to NOAA's State Climate Extremes Committee, -25 degrees Fahrenheit was previously reported at Greene, Rhode Island, on February 5, 1996, but it could not be verified.

In 1985, in the Carolinas, the coldest temperatures ever recorded were dubbed "The Coldest Day," WMBF News reported in 2020.

McIntosh, South Dakota, was home to just 131 people in 2021. It is the county seat of Corson County.

The two days of 113 degrees Fahrenheit were recorded in Perryville on July 29, 1930, and August 9, 1930, making them the hottest temperatures ever recorded in Tennessee.

Texas is known for its heat, but even this state has seen severe drops in temperatures — the best known was during the Great Blizzard of 1899.

Some unofficial reports even claim temperatures reached -30 degrees Fahrenheit in February 1899 at Wolf Creek, Texas. Either way, the Concho Valley Homepage reported in 2022 that newspapers in 1899 described the temperatures as "the worst freeze ever known in the state."

By contrast, the city of St. George has been home to the state's record for hottest temperature — twice. A temperature of 117 degrees Fahrenheit was recorded in July 1985 and again in July 2021.

Bloomfield, a town in Essex County, had a population of 217 in the 2020 US census. Its weather station existed from 1906 to 1968, according to Century 21 Farm & Forest.

Centered in the Allegheny Mountains is Mountain Lake, one of only two freshwater lakes in Virginia, according to the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources.

Just a year after this cold temperature was recorded, Mountain Lake was made famous again for the hit film "Dirty Dancing," which it served as the backdrop for, according to the Mountain Lake Lodge website.

On June 29, 2021, Hanford, Washington reached 120 degrees Fahrenheit, the hottest recorded temperature in that state. 

Just 13 years later, the highest temperature recorded was 112 degrees Fahrenheit in Moorefield, West Virginia, on August 4, 1930.

The coldest temperature recorded in Wisconsin ranks ninth in the nation.

Although Yellowstone's temperatures in Wyoming haven't plummeted to the levels they once did in 1933, "since most of the park lies at an elevation of 6,000 feet above sea level or higher, unpredictability characterizes Yellowstone's weather," the National Park Service has said.